By Lucy Caulkett-
Celebrated actor Danny Dyer will star in a new heart-stopping” and “emotional” TV series about the Iranian embassy siege.
Dyer, 48, known for playing Queen Vic landlord Mick Carter in BBC’s EastEnders from 2013 to 2022, will star in Channel 4’s TV adaptation of Ben Macintyre’s best-selling book The Siege, with Sherwood actor David Morrissey.
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The six-part series has been adapted by Slow Horses and Veep creator Will Smith, and follows the events of April 30 1980, when six armed Iranian terrorists took 26 people hostage after bursting into the Iranian embassy in London.
The thriller follows the six-day stand-off between the gunmen, hostages and police and the Special Air Service (SAS) mission that broke the siege.
he six-part series — titled The Siege — is being produced by Channel 4 and is adapted from the best-selling book The Siege by Ben Macintyre. It charts the real events of 30 April 1980, when six armed Iranian separatists stormed the Iranian Embassy in South Kensington, taking 26 hostages and triggering a tense six-day stand-off with police negotiators and elite forces.
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Dyer, 48, will portray PC Trevor Lock, a Metropolitan Police constable who was among those taken hostage and later played a crucial role in communicating with the terrorists and aiding the eventual SAS rescue operation.
The drama promises to be more than a straightforward retelling of the SAS storming of the building. According to Channel 4’s Chief Content Officer, Ian Katz, it will delve into the motivations of the hostage-takers and the emotional realities inside the embassy, offering human perspectives that past portrayals have often overlooked.
Scripted by Will Smith (creator of Slow Horses) and executive produced with European partners, The Siege is designed as a tense true-crime thriller with emotional depth, balancing action with historical context.
Unlike purely factual broadcasts or archival documentaries, this drama is an adaptation of narrative non-fiction — seeking a cinematic approach to real events. The original book and historical documentation (like documentaries about Operation Nimrod, the SAS mission that ended the siege) have long been sources of public fascination and academic study, emphasising not just the rescue itself but the political and psychological context of the crisis.
Dyer’s Past Factual/Documentary Work
This isn’t the first time Dyer has engaged with true-to-life, documentary-style storytelling. Earlier in his career, he fronted The Real Football Factories — a documentary series about football hooligan culture on British television, where he met and interviewed figures involved in real-world football firm scenes across the UK.
He also presented Danny Dyer’s Deadliest Men, another factual series in which he spent time with individuals viewed as particularly dangerous, blending real encounters with documentary-driven storytelling.
However, The Siege marks a significant step into dramatized historical narrative, where Dyer shifts from presenter/host roles in documentaries to portraying a real historical figure within a scripted retelling of true events.
Ian Katz, chief content officer at Channel 4, said: “The Iranian embassy siege and the daring raid which ended it was an iconic moment that forged the ferocious reputation of the modern SAS.
“The show is a heart-stopping, emotional thriller that reveals the little-known motivations of the hapless hostage-takers and the very human reality of what went on inside the embassy as the world looked on, and Britain’s most lethal soldiers practised their high-stakes assault.
Katz added: “It will change the way people understand the siege and reveal how close the famous SAS operation came to disaster.”
Dyer is also known for his roles in football films Mean Machine (2001) and The Football Factory (2004).
He will be joined by 200 Metres actor Motaz Malhees in a cast which includes The Crown star Alex Jennings.
A release date for the series is yet to be announced.
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